Audition

Hoping to meet the woman of his dreams, a shy, middle-aged Japanese widower (Ryo Ishibashi) holds phony movie auditions, eventually falling in love with a pretty, very demure girl (Eihi Shiina), who takes the bait. What might sound like a quaint little romantic comedy, however, is actually a shockingly gruesome erotic horror flick that--before it's over--will find the widower immobilized on a tarp on his living room floor while his coy little sweetheart is unpacking surgical equipment that would make Freddy Krueger nervous. Director Takashi Miike (Dead or Alive) begins brilliantly, building a recurring sense of skin-crawling foreboding atop the film's ostensible innocuousness, but then Audition veers off into such a discombobulated, non-literal nightmare that parts of it are more unwatchable for their confusion than for the graphic violence. Optional. [Note: DVD extras include a 24-minute interview with director Takashi Miike, audio commentary by Miike (translated from the Japanese and starting over an hour into the film), a 15-picture photo gallery, and (curiously) an eight-minute "History of the Egyptian Theatre," highlighting Sid Grauman's famous Hollywood movie palace. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a bizarre, unsettling film.] (R. Blackwelder) [Blu-ray Review—Feb. 12, 2019—Arrow, 115 min., in Japanese w/English subtitles, not rated, Blu-ray: $39.95—Making its latest appearance on Blu-ray, 1999’s Audition features a great transfer with DTS-HD 5.1 audio. Extras include audio commentaries (one by Takashi Miike and screenwriter Daisuke Tengan, the other by Miike scholar Tom Mes), a 'Damaged Romance' appreciation by critic Tony Rayns (35 min.), the behind-the-scenes segments 'Takashi Miike: Ties that Bind' (30 min.), 'Renji Ishibashi: Miike’s Toy' (21 min.), 'Eihi Shiina: From Audition to Vampire Girl' (20 min.), 'Ryo Ishibashi: Tokyo—Hollywood' (16 min.), and 'Ren Osugi: The Man in the Bag Speaks' (16 min.), a gallery, and an illustrated booklet. Bottom line: Miike’s deeply disturbing horror cult film looks sharp on Blu-ray.]